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Biblioteca Particular
Lot 18:
REGIOMONTANUS (Johannes)
EPYTOMA Joanis de mo[n]te regio In almagestu[m] ptolomei. Veneza: Johannes Hamman para Kaspar Grossch e Stephan Roemer, 1496, 31 de Agosto.
a10, b-n8.6, o6, p8; [108] ff., última em br.: il.; 295 mm. Fine copy; full vellum recently restored; full colth box; some manuscript contemporary annotations on margins.
FIRST PRINTED VERSION OF PTOLOMEY’S MAJOR WORK ON ASTRONOMY. Called "the greatest" in Arabic translations, it summarizes the discoveries of previous astronomers, giving the generation of Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler and Galileo the foundations for their discoveries. Regiomontano, Latinized name of Johannes Müller von Königsberg (1436-1476), and his mentor Peurbach met Cardinal Bessarion in Venice in 1460, and were asked to write an edition of Ptolemy’s work, completed in 1462. Their version it was smaller, carefully crafted in vocabulary, better structured and therefore more accessible than the original. It was based on the translation by Gerard of Cremona and a manuscript in Greek from the library of Cardinal Bessarion (currently in the Biblioteca Marciana), having added information from other writers that complemented Ptolemy’s text. After several years in Rome, he returned to Vienna, publishing some astronomical works, including some by his master Peurbach. He died in 1476 without being able to complete his plan. Only twenty years later, at the initiative of two Germans living in Venice, the work was printed. Some copies include a preface in defense of astronomy and its connection to astrology by Giovanni Battista Abiosi, an astronomer and astrologer from Ñáples, who is not included in this copy. The work, in addition to the numerous diagrams printed in the margins and beautiful capital letters, has a beautiful engraving depicting Regiomontano and Ptolemy at work beneath an armillary sphere. Very rare and very important.
¶ Printing and the Mind of Man 40
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